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We are pleased to announce the appointment of Prof. Claudia Kleinman as Co-Director of the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health, effective May 13, 2024. Prof. Kleinman will act as the Scientific Director of the Bioinformatics and Statistical Genetics research theme, a role performed thus far by Prof. Celia Greenwood. Prof. Greenwood is one of the founding members of the Ludmer Centre and has shaped the centre鈥檚 legacy and trajectory. Amongst Prof. Greenwood鈥檚 great contributions is her role in launching and leading the Quantitative Life Sciences () PhD program and associated seminar series. We take this opportunity to congratulate Prof. Greenwood on her accomplishments and leadership and to thank her for her commitment to the Ludmer Centre鈥檚 mission over the last decade.

Prof. Kleinman is a transdisciplinary researcher who combines molecular biology, computer science, statistics and evolutionary biology to study biological systems 鈥� from the molecular level to environmental influences on the genome. Originally from Argentina, Prof. Kleinman graduated from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, and obtained her Doctorate in Bioinformatics from the Universit茅 de Montr茅al in 2010. She joined the 麻豆AV University and G茅nome Qu茅bec Innovation Centre () as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2010. In 2014, she joined the Department of Human Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences as an Assistant Professor and Full Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI). Since then, she has also been an active member and a Principal Investigator of the Ludmer Centre, and an Associate Member of the 麻豆AV Centre for Translational Research in Cancer. Her research aims to advance our understanding of brain cancers and disorders by decrypting the fundamental mechanisms regulating gene expression, and their interplay with genetic and epigenetic factors.

To understand the underlying disease mechanisms, her lab uses computational genomics to define pathological mechanisms of gene expression in cancer and neurodevelopment. They investigate the processes at the root of malignant pediatric brain tumours by integrating high resolution data from patients, experimental models and single-cell atlases of the normal developing brain. Her recent work focuses on using single-cell technologies to resolve cell-to-cell variation in pediatric brain tumors and neurodevelopmental disease. Prof. Kleinman鈥檚 discoveries are providing new models for how diseases develop, opening new investigative targets for novel therapies. Her research has changed how certain tumours are studied, and has identified new potential treatments for others, paving the way for improved outcomes for children with deadly pediatric cancers.

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She has received awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and currently holds a career award from the Fonds de Recherche du Que虂bec 鈥� Sante虂 (FRQS). In 2020, she received the Canadian Cancer Society鈥檚 Bernard and Francine Dorval Prize for her work mapping the development of the human brain at the single cell level to identify when and where different childhood brain tumours arise. In 2021, Quebec Science named her paper in Nature Genetics, , as one of Quebec鈥檚 .

Along with the other three co-directors, Prof. Kleinman will continue the foundational work of Prof. Greenwood in the bioinformatics and statistical genetics field and co-lead the centre鈥檚 new single-cell genomics focus.

Please join us in congratulating Prof. Kleinman on this appointment and wishing her every success in this new role. Prof. Kleinman was nominated to this position by former co-director, Prof. Celia Greenwood, a recommendation that was unanimously approved by the Ludmer Centre鈥檚 governance board voting members.

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St茅phane Achim
Associate Director 鈥� Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health